http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k34COolbdmY

I found this John Avlon at the Daily Beast while I was busy on a piece about the right wing militias. He wrote a book called 'Wingnuts' and after reading several excerpts and other articles by him on this subject, I gleaned some pretty good information. And other sources seemed to confirm the information Avlon supplied on these dangerous right wing organizations.

But I saw him on cable news and he started to piss me off. First he seemed rather full of himself on TV and came across as some damned debutante. Second I caught him comparing the Wingnuts of the left to the Wingnuts of the right. That always infuriates me.

Quite by accident I found this bit of dirt on Avlon from Joan Walsh:

I was reluctant to wade into the problems with plagiarism at the Daily Beast the first time around, when correspondent Gerald Posner was forced to resign for borrowing material from other publications for many of his stories on the site. One of the stories he plagiarized that was never publicized happened to be a 2007 Salon story by freelancer Shaun McCanna, on heroin use by American military personnel in Afghanistan.

It took three weeks after McCanna confronted TDB with evidence of plagiarism, but finally the site added an editor's note crediting Salon.

When Gawker reported today that TDB again lifted from Salon -- this time "Wingnuts" author and "special correspondent" John Avlon borrowed liberally, without appropriate credit, from an Alexander Zaitchik story, "Glenn Beck's White Nationalist Fans" -- I was bothered, but I quickly reached out to editor Tina Brown, a longtime Salon friend, asking for an explanation, rather than responding publicly. I haven't gotten one yet; instead TDB's public relations person Andrew Kirk, in a rather shrieking statement, has asked Gawker to retract Hamilton Nolan's piece about Avlon's borrowings from salon.

Joan is pretty sharp. She pretends to be this mild mannered motherly type but that is a façade. She knows how to 'work' Matthews and push her left wing agenda at the same time. We need more like her on our side.

Anyway, this Avlon is working this 'center-ish' position. His book cover (which he is always selling) includes Beck and KeithO. That pisses me off for many, many reasons. Ed Shultz was just citing a study that demonstrated that 90% of all talk radio is hosted by right wing nuts. The remaining ten percent is made up of progressives and centrists.  Has anyone here ever heard KeithO ask for a regime change or express a desire that someone be shot dead?

Jon Stewart who appears on Avlon's Centrist List, will lump Keith and Rachel in with beckerhead. But I can forgive Stewart. No one, and I mean no one has skewered dicky cheney and w bush more than Stewart. And he never did 14 full minutes skewering Keith like he skewered beck.

Oh well. Avlon says:

In fact, the center does not only have the numbers, it has intellectual coherence and strong advocates. There are academics like the Hoover Institution's Morris Fiorina, author of Culture War? The Myth of a Polarized America and McGill's Gil Troy, author of Leading From the Center. There are centrist think tanks, like Will Marshall's Progressive Policy Institute and The Third Way associated with the Democratic side of the aisle and the Main Street Partnership for the GOP. There are centrist radio-show hosts like Michael Smerconish, Ronn Owens, and Alan Nathan. There are centrist Web sites like TheModerateVoice.com, Donklephant.com and BookerRising.net--as well as aggregators like Fark.com that skewer absurdities on both sides. Most important are the grassroots groups that are growing up on their own, like the Village Square movement based out of Florida, the Transpartisan Alliance, or the newly formed Pragmatic Center, which announced its presence in the wake of Kathleen Parker's column.

The purpose of this list is to show that there is a coherent and strong centrist movement growing in America right now. It is principled and civil. It is independent of the two parties' influential, entrenched special interests. And it is on the rise.

Taken together, this list should be a reminder that American politics was not always seen as a high-pitched battle between the far left and the far right. A century ago, a more reasoned analysis divided American politics into three currents: radicals, reactionaries, and progressives. Radicals wanted radical change. Reactionaries wanted no change. Turn-of-the-century progressives like Teddy Roosevelt wanted moderate change--reform, not revolution. They are the centrists of today--people who want America to move not left or right, but forward.

Take a look at the list and let the debate begin...

The Beast does this list thingy ever so often and I usually like it. This CENTRIST LIST purports to give us the 25 sanest journalists in the nation and the names include:

David Brooks, Michael Smerconish, David Frum, Stewart, Scarborough, Andrew Sullivan, Mark Mckinnon, David Gergen, Peggy Noonan -a beacon of civility and grace, Friedman, David Broder, and Joe Klein.

Every single time I hear about the sanity of the center and the need to recognize the center, a part of me knows that what the author or speaker means is RIGHT WING REPUBS WHO DON'T USUALLY SWEAR A LOT.

I have read from many here who adore Gergen. I cannot stand that combed-over repub who feigns center politics. He has never been anything but a shill for corporate interests and pretends to be this grand old statesman. Keepin' the peasants down is his real credo.

And Scarborough for Chrissakes might aver that threatening the person of President of the United States 'goes too far' but then adds that there are nuts 'on both sides'. About that time I find coffee all over the TV and I am listening to songs on my PC.

Avlon actually calls Peggy N. a beacon of civility and grace. Noonan is and always has been a Nixonian fascist who will tweak her nose like the lady on Bewitched while defending the fact that as many as fifty million go without medical care. Of course in the next breath she will then go on to say that 85% of all Americans are just in love with their health care coverage and then fudge on the numbers involving the uninsured while Jughead is playing with his privates under the table.

THE PEASANTS ARE REVOLTING!!!

Friedman is really one of the dumbest people I have ever read or watched on cable. I have noted before that his scowl is pretence for his concept of 'somber'.  He is nothing but a war mongering two faced repub prick who pretends to be an intellectual liberal.  NEVER ONCE DID HE TAKE THE TIME TO CONDEMN THE CRIMINAL ADMINISTRATION THAT LED US INTO TWO NEEDLESS WARS WHICH WILL PLAGUE US FOR THE REST OF THIS CENTURY.

Sullivan, Broder and Klein are good men. Sullivan really had a sort of epiphany a few years back. I think he just discovered that repubs do not like 'the gay community.'

Klein is interesting. He has always been in it for the money--like I can count on my fingers the few MSM representatives who are not--but after his fling with Clinton he went ballistic on the w administration. He really could not believe repubs could be that bad.

And Broder has always been one of my favorite liberal columnists over many decades. He is just old and courteous.

Intellectual coherence indeed. Frick you Avlon.

I am sticking with KeithO, Rachel, Shultz and O'Donnell. At least I know what side they are on.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUjI3tslL_4&feature=related

I will write fiction now, the sane are gone,

I can feign all the truth I need today.

Hidden are the darker aims to which I'm bound

I'm gonna go light, light, light

On my right wing way

People who read me now think I am calm

All of their bad feelings will disappear

Here are the lame brains I've been layin for

I'm gonna go light, light, light

On my right wing way.

Look all around, there's nothin but fascist guise

Look straight ahead, nothin but fascist guys.

The peasants are marchin now, the sane are gone

I can see new inductees on the way

Gone are the dark truths that they won't find

Its gonna be a bright, bright, bright

Right wing day.